**Post contains gifted items/Collaborative post**

Kids can benefit from gardening in significant ways. A garden is a place for kids to have fun, learn and grow into healthy individuals.

Gardening is a Blast!

One of the most exciting things for me as a parent of young kids is that the children believe gardening is fun! My children love to be outside; they love dirt, water and insects  – they even love digging for worms and also looking for minibeasts so the garden is a perfect playground for them to romp, explore and be creative. Digging in the garden, touching plants and insects, and watching things grow helps children develop a love for nature and the environment around them. Whilst in the garden they are constantly engaged, observing, discovering, paying attention and caring for their garden.

And they are so creative. They use leaves and sticks to make their own tree farms for pretend animals. Americanos and hot chocolates are created from compost for the garden worms. They even loved their mud kitchen we had in the garden, but I had to remove a while ago due to them keep digging holes all over the lawn to make more mud pies.

We also plant tiny seeds like sunflowers and watch as they grow into huge beautiful plants and we have our own vegetable patches in the garden. Last year we grew runner beans, tomatoes, strawberries and carrots. This year we already have potatoes growing in the garden and our strawberry plants from last year are doing really well already. We have also potted up tomatoes, cucumbers, runner beans, peas and a few other seeds which I wasn’t able to identify but we will soon discover once they start to grow.

Gardening is Educational!

So much of our fun play in the garden turns into learning about our amazing world. Gardening contains aspects of all three of the main sciences, life, Earth and physical. The life sciences are all around us in the garden as we learn about different plants and animals, about the food chain and sustainable living. The children know that ladybugs are good bugs and that they eat aphids, those tiny bad bugs that can devour our vegetable plants. They also know just how important Bee’s are for the garden and we try to leave out sugared water on hot days when we’ve come across Bee’s needing a drink, they also love creating bug hotels in the garden.

By exploring the soil and water and paying attention to the weather, we discover Earth science. My kids love watering the plants, creating mini rivers out of mud and water, and feeding banana scraps to the worms to enrich the soil, we even have our own compost bin so they add the vegetable peelings, grass cutting and even egg shells and boxes into the compost bin ready for an enriched compost come summer time.

We watch seeds grow and change into plants and talk about the sun and energy; these are just a few ways we enjoy learning about physical sciences. Not only are kids learning about science in the garden, but they are doing it in a way that is fun, which nourishes a love for science in them from a young age.

Science is a huge topic of learning in the garden, but kids also learn about mathematics, art, culture responsibility, care and compassion.

A Fun Way to Teach Kids About Nature

Introducing ducks into your garden can make gardening with kids even more exciting and educational. Ducks help control pests naturally, keeping plants healthy while teaching children about ecosystems and animal care. Watching and feeding ducks also fosters responsibility and a deeper connection to nature, making gardening a more engaging experience for the whole family.

Gardening is Healthy!

Gardening is a great way to get kids moving. In the garden the kids dig, rake, plant; they are constantly in motion in the fresh outdoor air. In addition to exercise, kids can grow healthy delicious veggies and fruit that they actually eat. Peas, strawberries, blueberries, carrots and zucchini are just a few my kids love to devour. By inviting kids into the garden you are helping them create healthy habits for a lifetime. The benefits of gardening with your kids will keep sprouting and sprouting.

[AdSense-B]

The children love to help out in all aspects of gardening and they love nothing best than having their own tools as it helps them to feel more grown up. Recently they were sent a Sneeboer & Zn Children’s Mattock tool and they were thrilled.  This is a double-edged tool made especially for children meaning it is a perfect length for them to hold and to use and also means it isn’t too heavy for them to actually pick up and use.

With a fork on one side and a cutter on the other, this is great for digging, loosening the soil and also they’ve been using to help tidy the garden edges with me.

They love to get involved in all aspects of the gardening, even those parts which us adults find a chore – only today while I was cutting the grass did the kids don some new gardening gloves and help to pull up the stinging nettles and help to find the rockery which had become buried under the weeds. They then helped to trim back some of the bushes in the front garden. Of course, there may be jobs you can’t tackle yourselves so you can choose Syracuse tree professionals for example to help tackle the bigger jobs.

We were sent 2 pairs of gardening gloves from Gold Leaf, these gloves are luxury gardening gloves which are RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) endorsed.

Harry was wearing a pair of Gold Leaf DRY TOUCH gardening gloves which are actually a ladies size – yes, they are meant for me but he’s stolen then to help with the gardening project.

Gold leaf gloves are specially designed for gardening purposes, they are durable and comfortable, in fact, these are the most comfortable gardening glove I have ever worn. Made from leather they mould to your own hand shape, and just like leather shoes they need a little wearing in but they fit just like a glove! Unlike many other gardening gloves which are often far too big. Because these are leather gloves they are really tough and as well as fitting me they fit Harry really well too, and he was happy pulling out the nettles with the gloves on as he couldn’t feel it at all.

[AdSense-B]

I was also sent a pair of TOUGH TIPS gloves, these look more like the gardening gloves you may be used too, material but with reinforced tough fingertips, these are perfect for those easier jobs from planting to pulling weeds – I did test them out and pulling the nettles with my hands I couldn’t feel them through the gloves so the reinforced fingertips really do help. These aren’t as snuck fitting as the leather gloves but perfect for the easier jobs and help to give a great grip on your gardening tools.

Both gloves are available from www.goldleaf-gloves.com

Gardening saves money!

Of course, the initial layout can be a tad expensive, gardening tools, lawn mowers and even the compost but once you have those they can be used year on out until they need replacing.

Upcycling is a great way to save money too, many things can be turned into planters – old welly boots, old car tyres and even wooden pallets can be made into raised flower beds.

Last year, a friend of mine was getting rid of her old water tank, much to Paul’s annoyance at the time, I got him to collect it and cut off the top. He drilled holes into the bottom and I filled with soil, covered in faux foliage and turned into a vegetable patch – it worked brilliantly and once the seedlings are ready to be moved from the kitchen windowsill they will go into this veggie patch again.

Then there is the money saved from your harvest – I didn’t need to buy many vegetables at all last year and with even more going in again this year, I should be buying even less.

Do your children enjoy gardening with you?

[AdSense-A]